Degreed Engineer with experience in PCB Layout and Design looking for small/medium complexity layout jobs for your latest home project or commercial design.
See below for some restrictions on what i can do and might not want to do.
I do this work on a part-time/after hours basis and use an older version of P-CAD which is perfectly acceptable for laying out most "normal" printed circuit boards (which i routinely use where i work).
The boards can be single-sided or multilayer.
A typical board might be 4-layer with 2 Signal layers plus a POWER and GROUND layer although multiple signal layers with no POWER and GROUND layers is also fine as are other layer combinations.
Copper fills on the signal layers are no problem if you need them and split planes on the Power/Ground layers are also easy if you need multiple plane areas within the same POWER and/or GROUND layers.
Both thru-hole and surface mount parts on either the Top and Bottom of the board are common (in this case, there would be separate Silkscreens for the Top and Bottom layer).
Of course, you would need to tell be about any 'special' info you want on the silkscreens such as Company Name, Project ID, Revision Number, etc.
I generally look for "normal" small to medium complexity designs with "normal" parts and requirements and would NOT attempt to do =extremely= fine-pitched parts or ball grid array chips.
So any "normal" digital logic design should not be a problem.
Analog components are also ok if you are very clear about any special grounding requirements and other things like isolated planes, filter capacitor placement, etc.
However, very high frequency designs might be a problem and i would not try to do RF or stripline designs since i don't know enough about that.
If there are going to be High Voltage areas and lines on the board, you would need to be very specific about the spacing and allowable clearances and possible isolation barriers that are needed.
All board vias will go through all the board layers and be plated.
I would not attempt to use blind or buried vias.
Note: I DO NOT MANUFACTURE the actual PC Boards, i would normally only do the PCB layout and supply you with the final GERBER files (in RS-274X format) and the DRILL information as generated by the program.
This information could then be sent to a board design facility to make the boards for you.
I always recommended making a small run at first to make sure everything is working OK.
You would also need to give the board house addition information such as board material, copper thickness (generally 2-oz copper), layer order, etc.
However, if you like, i might be able to additionally work with the board house for you (you would need to pay me some additional fee plus pay the board house for the board run).
This way, you can get the bare boards without needing to interface with the board house (i would go overseas since they are much cheaper).
I could even populate =some= of the boards if you only needed a few made.
But for quantity, you would need to go to a local assembly house.
Since i am also an Engineer, additional troubleshooting your design might be possible as well.
If interested, you would need to supply me with at least the following information:
- The complete board schematic and NETLIST if possible.
- The exact part count and if there are to be components on both sides of the board and any layout preferences.
- Any special requirements for part layout and signal flow.
- What type of parts are you using (surface mount, thru hole, etc.
), what is the lead pitch (spacing between the leads) and if there are there any super fine pitched parts involved.
- The board size and shape and maximum allowable or specific outside dimensions and/or any internal cutouts needed.
- Any special requirements for component placement where their height may hit something else in your chassis.
- How many layer board you want (if you care) and if you need Power and Ground layers or any split planes.
- The location of board mounting holes (if needed) their size and whether they are to be plated or copper free.
- If there are any 'special' components on the board which require special layout procedures and which possibly cannot be near other parts and/or if there are any copper "no-go" regions such as isolation regions/boundaries and their widths.
If you decide to have me do the job, i would need to know the exact parts you are using (and ideally obtain samples unless they are common enough that i can look them up) so that i would be able to caliper them out to create dimensionally correct footprints and hole sizes for them.
Plus, as mentioned, information about the overall board size, connectors, mounting holes, silkscreen markings, etc.
, plus power and ground planes, copper pours, etc.
, and if there are going to be any odd or unusual requirements.
A ballpark cost estimate for what you are looking to pay would also be appreciated.
Making a great PCB usually requires a lot of painstaking attention to detail and can be extremely tedious and time consuming to get things to come out right.
Fortunately, i am fairly good at doing this so you don't have to!
Get back if you have any interest in a current or future design =or= for other potential Electronics/Engineering related work.
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